I think I did an ohh ohh!!!

Okay, so my bike wouldn't start. Based on it sitting up for a month I figured that the battery was dead. Charged the battery and it would act as though it wanted to start. I tried continuously, so I figured that I flooded it. I pulled the plugs yesterday and tried to reinstall. I got all of them in for the exception of the 3rd (from left to right.) The problem is that I believe I stripped the whole (not sure what its called) because the spark plug was going in crooked and I couldn't get it in completely. Now my question is how do I rectify the problem. Oh, and I found out why the bike wouldn't start... no gas. Doooh!

 

No offense but I suspect that if your mechanical abilities resulted in your cross-threading that spark plug, the repair process is going to be beyond your ability.

Hopefully there is an XJ member close enough to you to help you out. If not, find a good repair shop. It'll be cheaper in the long run.

 

No disrespect, but the reason for this site is to aid those with the common interest of xj's and share knowledge... If I wanted tob take my bike to the shop and get raped, I wouldn't be on here asking questions, now would I? The reason for me cross threading was because I was working in a dim lit area! Their's things on my mind and my only release is my bike... My bike isn't running hints me working on it! Now do you know of a way to rectify this problem?

 

Either retap (iffy), or helicoil (better) the threads. It would be better if you pulled the head to do this, but has been done on the bike before with good results. You may have to search a little on here to find it.

 

FW, what you will need to do if the threads in the hole are truly stripped (which is likely to be the case as the head is aluminum and the spark plug is steel) is to install a heli-coil insert. If you do a search for heli coil you will find a large amount of information. This being said, it might be almost the same money to have a machine shop do the job for you as the system is rather expensive to purchase.

Oh. One more thing. Don't feel like the Lone Ranger on this. None of us have EVER stripped a plug hole! Yeah right.

Good luck with this repair and my final advice would be to have a machine shop do the work if the cost is close.

Loren

 

From your description, here's what you're going to need to do:

1 - Pull the cylinder head off the engine as per the instructions in the manual/XJ CD.
2 - Clean any filings/shavings/metal flakes out of the #3 cylinder
3 - Pick up a Helicoil kit and use it to very carefully repair the damaged threads.
4 - Clean shavings/filings/flakes from underside of cylinder head.
5 - Reinstall cylinder head, adjust timing, etc as per the manual/XJ CD's instructions.

You might want to do your valves, since you'll have the top of the engine open anyways. Since you'll need to pull the cam shafts to get the cylinder head off, you won't need to worry about using the shim bucket hold down tool to remove them...

Oh, and you'll likely need a new cylinder head gasket and possibly a couple others to do this. I had to pull my cylinder head and it turned out more cost effective to just get a complete seal/gasket kit than to order just the ones I needed.

 

Alright, I do appreciate the advice! I didn't mean to sound like an arss earlier, I just really need a ride in! A therapist has nothing on flying down the open road with wind in your face, you know!?!?

 

Ok, now reading the last post, I think jt was right about this far exceeding my mechanical know how... Sh**!!!! Does anybody want a backfiring m.c.? :evil:

 

here ya go

 

Neat tool Polock. Cheaper than the heli-coil parts. Are the plug holes on these bikes tapered? I don't remember. If so, would this tool still work? I know the holes on my road bike are tapered.

 

tapered sparkplug holes? on purpose ? thats a new one to me

 

The plug holes aren't tapered.

Unless you COMPLETELY stripped the hole, chances are you can "chase" the threads and clean it up. You can buy a "spark plug thread chaser" at any good auto parts for under $20. It's nothing more than a tapered and heavily 'relieved' tap.

You can also put the cylinder on TDC, remove the head pipe on the damaged cylinder, block the throttles open, and hook up your shop vac to the exhaust port. With the shop vac on, go ahead and "chase" the threads. The shop vac should suck any shavings out.

The above may save you from having to pull the head.

For the future: Never use anything more than finger-tightening force to install new spark plugs, thread them by hand. If you can't reach with your fingers use a piece of appropriately sized rubber hose; jam the sparkplug into the hose and use it as a handle to thread it in. Always use a dollop of anti-sieze compound on your new plugs.

 

I think he means tapered seats. Some (mostly automotive) spark plugs that don't use crush washers utilize tapered seats.

 

Question, and forgive my ignorance, but with this tool, will I still need to crack my ingine open? This is one of my fears... Working on the ingine!

 

Never mind the previous post... I see the answer. This has made my day!

 

Another trick I use when i can't get my hand in to start the plug, is to stick a piece of gas line on the top of the plug to get it started. If it starts to cross thread, the gas line slips. Sometimes you have to jiggle it a bit to get the plug near snug. Just make sure you get a good 4-5 360degree rotations before you put a wrench on it.

 

If worse comes to worse and you had to use a regular thread chaser, or tap, to repair the threads, it can be done, very carefully, by packing grease into the groves on the tap, turning it in one turn, removing it, cleaning it, regreasing, then turning it in two turns and so on until done. Shavings will get trapped in the grease and not in the cylinder.